Hearing the Call of Wisdom

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; John 16:12-15

            You probably remember one of Aesop’s most famous fables, the one about the hare and the tortoise.  The hare was boasting one day about how fast he could run a race.  The tortoise overheard his boast and challenged him to a race.  The hare eagerly agreed.  This would be too easy, he thought to himself.

            The hare took off and quickly outran the slow-moving tortoise.  He got so far ahead and was so tired that he decided to lie down and take a nap.  He was thinking, “This is no big deal!  I’m so far ahead he will never catch me.  Even if he does, I can quickly catch a plodding tortoise!”  Unfortunately, the hare overslept.  When he woke, even though he was the fastest runner, he found that the tortoise had already crossed the finish line.

            The moral of the story: “Slow and steady wins the race.”

            The Greek storyteller, Aesop, lived hundreds of years before the time of Christ and is credited with many wise fables.  His fables were intended to be instructive, to teach the young people wisdom.

            I find it interesting that the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament is dated to approximately that same time.  And it too is full of wisdom sayings. Scholars tell us it was originally a teaching manual for Jewish youth.  The elders would take the youth aside and use the book of Proverbs to impart the collective wisdom of the community to their youth.  Here’s one piece of the community’s wisdom presented as a question:

Can fire be carried in the bosom

without burning one’s clothes?

            Now imagine talking with 25 or 30 teenagers.  Most are very fine kids.  They’re not the “wild child” type.  At least, most of them are not.  Two or three might be.  They just might be thinking they can play with fire and not get burned.  Some of us thought that too, didn’t we?  We’ve still got the burn marks to prove it.  So, the elders asked them this rhetorical question: “Do you really think you can carry fire in your shirt pocket and not burn yourself?”  And of course, the wisdom of the gathered community was, “No, you can’t do that.  You will get burned every time.”

            Here is one directed just to the girls.  Again, most were very fine girls, but maybe one or two had wandering minds.

Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout

is a beautiful woman without

good sense.

            Pretty descriptive, isn’t it? To be fair, here’s one for the guys:

A stupid son is a grief to a father;

and the father of a fool has no joy.

            Obviously, they weren’t concerned with being politically correct.  They were concerned with the welfare of their children, which was ultimately the welfare of their community.  These teachings were about how to live the good life, how to find joy, love, and happiness, and how to avoid a life of misery and ruin.  They were about becoming mature and not being foolish. They were about being a healthy community rather than a dysfunctional community. So, these ancient people of Israel, like Aesop, were intentional about imparting wisdom to their youth.

            I find the text from Proverbs 8 to be particularly intriguing.  Wisdom here is personified, presented as an attractive woman calling out to the youth: “Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?”

            So, if wisdom was indeed a person and she spoke to us, what would she say? What would she say to us about living the good life?

            First of all, let me define wisdom.  Wisdom in the Hebrew culture was more than being smart or clever.  Hebrew wisdom had these three characteristics.  First, it was practical, like a tortoise outrunning a hare in a race because it was slow and steady.  Do you remember the story of King Solomon and the two prostitutes?  Both women had babies about the same time.  One baby died.  The mother of the baby that died took her dead baby and placed it with the other woman while she slept and took her living baby as her own.  When the sleeping woman woke, she knew immediately that the dead baby was not hers and that her baby had been stolen.  They took the matter to King Solomon.  He told them to take the living baby, cut it in two, and give half a baby to one mother and half to the other.  Of course, the real mother recoiled in horror and gave up her baby rather than have it killed. So, the king, realizing that she was the real mother, gave the baby to her.  That is practical wisdom.

            A second characteristic of Hebrew wisdom is this: it had its limits.  Remember the man named Job?  He experienced terrible misfortune. Afterwards three friends came to visit.  They claimed to be wise, but the counsel they gave Job was anything but wisdom.  Not everyone who claimed to be wise was wise.  Clearly wisdom had limits.

            And here’s the third characteristic: Hebrew wisdom was believed to be both human and divine.  Sometimes wisdom was acquired simply by human experience.  We all have learned from our experiences, right?  Good experience and bad experiences.  But some people seemed to have an extra measure of wisdom, like some of you, and that was believed to be a gift from God. 

            So Hebrew wisdom was more than being smart, what we might call book learning.  And it was more than being clever or cunning.  Here’s a definition.  Biblical wisdom was a practical understanding of the good life and a determination to live so as to acquire that good life. 

Here’s what Proverbs 8 taught their youth: wisdom is trying to get your attention.  She calls from the heights, the text says, from beside the way, and at the crossroads.  She’s at the gate of the city and every place we enter.  Wisdom is trying to get our attention.

            Have you ever been in a situation when you could “hear” a “voice” telling you not to do something, and you did it anyway?  It was like a something was screaming at you from the inside, “Don’t do this!”  And you did it anyway.  And later you wished you had listened to that voice!

            I was a youth once and made plenty of youthful errors.  We had a cheer at my high school.  It was slightly off color.  Some guys dared me during a pep rally to start the cheer.  Did I mention I was young?  So I started the cheer.  I knew I shouldn’t have.  Something inside me was saying, “David, this is not a good idea.  Don’t do it!”  Well, I did it anyway.  Suddenly the cheer took on a life of its own, and the entire student body joined in.  There was no way to stop it. That was Friday afternoon.  The next Monday morning during announcements over the intercom the principal ended his announcements by saying, “Would David Freeman from Mr. Taylor’s homeroom come to my office immediately.”

            Now, I could hear her voice, Wisdom, calling to me, “Don’t do it, David!  Don’t be foolish.  You will regret this.”  I ignored her, and I regretted it.

            Wisdom is constantly trying to get our attention, regardless of our age.  Our text says that from the beginning of time, she has been calling to us:  “Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.”  Before the mountains were formed.  Before the fields were rolled out.  Before the heavens above were established.  Before the great oceans were filled with water.  Before it all, Wisdom was present. 

Now, here’s something to consider.  What does this sound like to you?  Doesn’t this sound like an Old Testament concept of the Holy Spirit?  Replace the word “wisdom” with Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is trying to get our attention.  She calls to us from the heights, from beside the way, and at the crossroads.  She’s at the gate of the city and every place we enter.  The Holy Spirit is trying to get our attention.  Why?  That we might live the good life, know joy, love, and happiness.  That we might avoid a life of misery and ruin.  That we might be mature rather than foolish.  That our community and we might be healthy.

            Proverbs 8 challenges us to listen to wisdom.  Youth, listen to her.  Adults, listen to her.  All of us, let us hear the call of wisdom. 

Closing Prayer 

          Lord, we are listening.  Guide us onto paths of righteousness for your name’s sake.  Amen.